Physics & Instrumentation
The physics behind every image — how radionuclides decay and emit photons, how those photons interact and are detected, and how the gamma camera, SPECT and PET turn counts into quantitative images. Detection, collimation, reconstruction and correction underpin image quality, artefact recognition and radiation safety.
Clinical topics
Atomic structure & decay
Decay modes, half-life and units of activity.
Radiation–matter interactions
Photoelectric, Compton, attenuation.
Gamma camera & collimators
Anger camera, photopeak, collimator types.
SPECT & SPECT/CT
Tomography, iterative reconstruction, fusion.
PET & PET/CT physics
Annihilation, coincidence, TOF, scintillators.
Quantification & correction
Attenuation, scatter, SUV and its pitfalls.
Quality control
Camera, PET and dose-calibrator QC.
Radiation biology
DNA damage, survival curves, tissue reactions, ARS, fetus.
Radiation protection
ALARA, dose limits, dosimetry, waste.
Counting statistics & dose calibrator
Poisson errors, dead time, calibrator QC and problem nuclides.
Internal dosimetry
MIRD schema, effective dose, voxel and therapy dosimetry.
PET/MR
Detectors in the magnet, MR attenuation correction, indications.
Sources
Key guidelines and evidence behind this chapter.
- Cherry SR, Sorenson JA, Phelps ME. Physics in Nuclear Medicine. 4th ed. Philadelphia: Elsevier Saunders; 2012.
- Saha GB. Physics and Radiobiology of Nuclear Medicine. 4th ed. New York: Springer; 2013.
- Bushberg JT, Seibert JA, Leidholdt EM Jr, Boone JM. The Essential Physics of Medical Imaging. 4th ed. Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer; 2021.
- National Electrical Manufacturers Association. NEMA NU 1-2018 (gamma cameras) and NEMA NU 2-2018 (positron emission tomographs): performance measurements. Rosslyn, VA: NEMA; 2018.
- Busemann Sokole E, Płachcínska A, Britten A, et al. Routine quality control recommendations for nuclear medicine instrumentation. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2010;37:662-71.
- American Association of Physicists in Medicine. Report No. 126: PET/CT acceptance testing and quality assurance (2019); Report No. 177: gamma camera, SPECT and SPECT/CT acceptance testing and annual survey (2019); Report No. 181: radionuclide calibrators (2012). College Park, MD: AAPM.
- International Atomic Energy Agency. Quality Assurance for PET and PET/CT Systems (Human Health Series No. 1, 2009); Quality Assurance for SPECT Systems (Human Health Series No. 6, 2009); Quality Assurance for Radioactivity Measurement in Nuclear Medicine (TRS-454, 2006). Vienna: IAEA.
- ICRP. The 2007 Recommendations of the International Commission on Radiological Protection. ICRP Publication 103. Ann ICRP. 2007;37(2-4); and ICRP Publication 118 on tissue reactions. Ann ICRP. 2012;41(1-2).
- Boellaard R, Delgado-Bolton R, Oyen WJ, et al. FDG PET/CT: EANM procedure guidelines for tumour imaging: version 2.0. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2015;42:328-54.
- National Nuclear Data Center, Brookhaven National Laboratory. NuDat 3: evaluated nuclear structure and decay data.